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Is 'Twilight' and 'New Moon's Charlie Swan a model father?
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Statistics show that, despite the fact that mother-daughter relationships are more heavily emphasized in American culture, the father-daughter relationship is one of vast importance. Impacting more heavily in the areas of academic and career success, the development of loving and trusting relationships with men, the ability to respond well to authority figures, channeling self-confidence, adventure, and emotional health, a father’s relationship with his daughter is certainly vital to a healthy upbringing.
That said, statistics also show that “the decline of two-parent, married-couple famil[ies] has resulted in poverty, ill-health, educational failure, unhappiness, anti-social behavior, isolation and social exclusion for thousands of men, women and children.”
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In Twilight, we got to meet Charlie Swan, father to Bella Swan (the protagonist). A constant figure in the Twilight series books (and films), Charlie Swan is your typical good old-fashioned dad. A police chief (which, I can tell you from experience is daunting for Bella to have in the teenage stages), sports fan, and all-around good guy, their relationship before she made her way to Forks, Washington was one of limited capacity.In the book series, however, we get to see Charlie and Bella’s relationship blossom quite normally, despite the fantastic events of her life. A source of constancy and humanity (pun intended), Charlie becomes, for Bella, a character of grave importance, and it shows.
Presenting her with a truck that she couldn’t have expected to be more perfect, Charlie makes his first leap onto Bella’s side of the playing field. Between snow chains, culinary compliments, and guiltless respect for privacy, Charlie picks up the tenors of fathering a teenage daughter in no time. It does not go unnoticed. When her life is in danger, it seems, Bella’s concern for her parents (including, firstly, Charlie) is rampant.
As the saga continues, their relationship and bond grows to the point of a mutual, unspoken understanding - a communication that transcends words and gestures.
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“It's a vastly more accurate portrayal of divorced fathers than we usually get in the media these days, and one we need to see a lot more of,” says Glenn Sacks of the film portrayal of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Charlie (Billy Burke)’s relationship in Twilight.Responds Sonja Newcombe, a reader of Sacks’ article, “Bella and Charlie share a special relationship which is not necessarily uncommon between fathers and their daughters. As they are both quiet and unassuming people, most of their love for each other is played out in their actions rather than words.”
Throughout the Twilight saga, Charlie Swan is a steadfast and loyal character that Bella can rely upon to be consistent and relatively uncomplicated – despite the undefined tethers that hold their relationship in place. It is Charlie who stands most sturdily by Bella’s side in her times of catatonic Cullen withdrawals (pre-Jacob Black, of course), and who she most heartily worries about in certain [spoiler] transformative situations (such as in Breaking Dawn).
While in the beginning of Twilight, the book (and film, as it were), Bella is less than thrilled about her new home in Forks, Washington, by the time Breaking Dawn rolls around, she is nearly heart-broken (and, in fact, refuses) to have to walk away from her relationship with Charlie. All the meat in the middle only strengthens the claim that he is a model father, too.
“Soft and kind when I was cryin’ . . . hard as steel when I’d done wrong,” as the old song might say, were the hands of Charlie Swan to Bella Swan throughout the Twilight series. Stern when necessary and appropriate, yet lovely and comforting in appropriate measure, Charlie Swan knows how to treat a little lady.
With all of the negative speculation out there about the underlying messages of the Twilight series, this aspect of the series proves to be (potentially) a huge point of positivity.
That said, I ask you – do you agree that Charlie Swan might indeed serve as a model father in his relationship with Bella? Comment below and let us know!
More About:
Twilight Profiles ·
Bella Swan ·
Kristen Stewart ·
Twilight (book) ·
Charlie Swan ·
Billy Burke ·
Twilight ·
New Moon
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